Gov't Failed To Warn About Fluoride Harm To Black Community

Yesterday,
we sent out the press release below. After reading this breaking news
yourself, please take a few minutes to forward the press release to your local newspapers, TV media, and radio stations. With your help we can make this news around the world.

Government
health authorities knew over 50 years ago that black Americans suffered
greater harm from fluoridation, yet failed to warn the black community
about their disproportionate risk, according to documents obtained by
the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).

Prior
to Grand Rapids, government fluorosis studies focused exclusively on
white children. But little publicized results from Grand Rapids showed
that black children were more susceptible to fluorosis than whites.

A January 10, 1962 internal memorandum,
from a U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) official, F.J. Maier, revealed
that “negroes in Grand Rapids had twice as much fluorosis than others.”

Based on this, Maier asked, “In a community with a larger number of negroes (say in Dekalb County, Georgia) would this tend to change our optimum fluoride levels?”

No
change was made. Worse, government officials have taken no steps to
educate the black community about their heightened fluoridation risk.

A
FAN team led by attorney Michael Connett uncovered the 1962 memorandum
and a trove of other soon-to-be released documents that shed light on
how political pressures have stymied open discussion from government and
industrial authorities on the hazards of fluoride.

In
2005, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) acknowledged for the first
time that the black community has higher rates of dental fluorosis. It
took a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, however, to learn the
full extent of this disparity. According to recently released FOIA documents, 58% of black children were diagnosed with dental fluorosis in CDC’s 1999-2004 national survey, versus 36% of white children.

“The
epidemic of fluorosis now seen in the black community,” says Connett,
“is the visible legacy of the government’s failure to act on what it
knew.”

When the PHS first endorsed fluoridation in the early 1950s, the NRC estimated
that the “safe level” of fluoride is exceeded when “more than 10 to 15
percent of children” have “the mildest” type of fluorosis.

Black
children now far exceed the NRC’s safety threshold. One study from
fluoridated Augusta, Georgia found 17% of black children suffering from
advanced forms (moderate and severe) of fluorosis, the kind of fluorosis
that was once only seen in high-fluoride communities. (Williams 1990).

Despite being fluoride-overdosed, blacks still suffer from higher rates of tooth decay,
with many low-income minority communities suffering from what health
officials have called a “silent epidemic” of untreated tooth decay.

Not
only are fluorosis and cavity rates higher in the black community, but
so too are various health conditions, such as diabetes and kidney
disease, that increase susceptibility to fluoride’s harmful effects.

Because of this, a number of civil rights advocates
have begun calling for an end to fluoridation, including former Atlanta
Mayor Andrew Young, the Reverend Dr. Gerald Durley, the Reverend
Bernice King (daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King), and LULAC (the
largest Hispanic civil rights organization).

“Dental fluorosis is only the most obvious effect of fluoride, because you can see it,” says Connett. Fluoride is an “endocrine disrupter” that can affect thyroid function according to a 2006 report from the National Research Council, and a neurotoxin that can damage the developing brain, according to a 2014 paper in The Lancet.

After you have forwarded the press release to
your local and state media outlets, please also take a few minutes to
help us share this information with leaders from the black community.
To do this, just look up your local or state NAACP chapter (or similar
organization), locate contact information for their director or
executive staff and plug their email addresses into our "Tell a Friend" system.
With your help we can expand the number of organizations opposing
fluoridation, and substantially increase the momentum in our favor.